Crawford, the 37-year-old free agent, will sign a two-year, $8.9 million deal with Minnesota once he clears waivers on Monday, sources told cleveland.com. The deal includes a player's option on the second season. Crawford was bought out of his contract by the Hawks on Friday.

Crawford was interested in joining the Cavs, but the team told him it would not pay him its full $5.2 million mid-level exception to the salary cap because of its interest in bringing Osman to the club.

Cleveland owns the NBA rights to the Turkish forward Osman, and to add him to the team this season needed to be able to pay him more than the $816,000 minimum salary for a rookie.

Osman one of the few young assets the Cavs have, and the organization didn't want to either send him back to Turkey or trade him. He has a $1 million buyout clause in his contract with his Turkish club Anadolu Efes.

The only to pay Osman enough to get him here would be to dip into the mid-level exception. But it would be difficult to count on Osman right now to play meaningful minutes in a playoff game. He averaged 7.1 points in Euroleague play this season.

Crawford played all 82 regular-season games for the Clippers last season and averaged 12.3 points, shooting .360 from 3-point range.

LeBron James, who can be a free agent at season's end, spoke with Crawford about coming to the Cavs after Crawford reached out to him.

Crawford, who according to reports was pressed by Wolves new star Jimmy Butler to go there, went with the better pay day. When reached agreement with the Hawks on a buyout, Crawford was "Cleveland's to lose," a source close to him said.

The Cavs did not make a formal offer to Crawford, a source said.

Osman is in Las Vegas again Saturday hanging out with the Cavs' front office. He will return to Turkey for a commitment to the Turkish national team, but, may apparently soon be back in Cleveland.